• Title/Summary/Keyword: Agricultural subsidies

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Development of Cotton Farming and Transformation of Rural Area in Sanliurfa Prefecture, Turkey (터키 샹르울파주 목화농업의 전개와 지역사회의 변화)

  • Kang, Sukkyeong
    • Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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    • v.48 no.1
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    • pp.87-111
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    • 2013
  • Regional disparities between eastern and western regions is the most of serious problem for balanced regional development in Turkey. The Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) is being implemented to eliminate these regional development disparities. The work that was initially planned as predominantly for hydraulic energy production to utilize water resources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers more effectively was later transformed into an integrated multi-sector regional development project. This study noted that this region had very limited cash crop production because of the constraints of semi-arid climate of the southeastern region, however, later, it has changed Turkey's major cotton producing region since Southeastern Anatolia Project carried out. Therefore, this study investigated background, process, and content of the Southeastern Anatolia Project with respect to high cotton productivity in this region and examined the dynamic changes of cotton productivity in this region. In addition, Sanliurfa prefecture is one of the main development axes of the Southeastern Anatolia Project, because government investments are concentrated on this prefecture. Therefore, this study examined the background and process of cotton farming growth in this prefecture. In 2011, Sanliurfa prefecture produced 37.6% of Turkey's total cotton production. This is mainly due to agricultural infrastructure expansion such as land consolidation, irrigation, roads and farm roads. Also, it is one of the main factor that subsidies paid to farmers for cotton cultivation. The introduction of irrigation has dramatically changed the direction of seasonal migration of this area. Prior to irrigation, this area had a serious social issue about out-migration for seasonal labor to other areas. However, the introduction of irrigation made this area that changed to in-migration and intramigration for cotton cultivation. Irrigation water is supplied to farmers through the WUAs (Water User Associations) that handed over irrigation water management, operation from DSI (General Directorate of State of Hydraulic Works). However, the WUAs are under the influence of Ashiret, a traditional feudal social structure. Because of this reason, it does not have an efficient management for farmers. Also, it is one of the reasons that this area does not have autonomous farmer organization.

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Rapid Rural-Urban Migration and the Rural Economy in Korea (한국(韓國)의 급격(急激)한 이촌향도형(離村向都型) 인구이동(人口移動)과 농촌경제(農村經濟))

  • Lee, Bun-song
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.27-45
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    • 1990
  • Two opposing views prevail regarding the economic impact of rural out-migration on the rural areas of origin. The optimistic neoclassical view argues that rapid rural out-migration is not detrimental to the income and welfare of the rural areas of origin, whereas Lipton (1980) argues the opposite. We developed our own alternative model for rural to urban migration, appropriate for rapidly developing economies such as Korea's. This model, which adopts international trade theories of nontraded goods and Dutch Disease to rural to urban migration issues, argues that rural to urban migration is caused mainly by two factors: first, the unprofitability of farming, and second, the decrease in demand for rural nontraded goods and the increase in demand for urban nontraded goods. The unprofitability of farming is caused by the increase in rural wages, which is induced by increasing urban wages in booming urban manufacturing sectors, and by the fact that the cost increases in farming cannot be shifted to consumers, because farm prices are fixed worldwide and because the income demand elasticity for farm products is very low. The demand for nontraded goods decreases in rural and increases in urban areas because population density and income in urban areas increase sharply, while those in rural areas decrease sharply, due to rapid rural to urban migration. Given that the market structure for nontraded goods-namely, service sectors including educational and health facilities-is mostly in monopolistically competitive, and that the demand for nontraded goods comes only from local sources, the urban service sector enjoys economies of scale, and can thus offer services at cheaper prices and in greater variety, whereas the rural service sector cannot enjoy the advantages offered by scale economies. Our view concerning the economic impact of rural to urban migration on rural areas of origin agrees with Lipton's pessimistic view that rural out-migration is detrimental to the income and welfare of rural areas. However, our reasons for the reduction of rural income are different from those in Lipton's model. Lipton argued that rural income and welfare deteriorate mainly because of a shortage of human capital, younger workers and talent resulting from selective rural out-migration. Instead, we believe that rural income declines, first, because a rapid rural-urban migration creates a further shortage of farm labor supplies and increases rural wages, and thus reduces further the profitability of farming and, second, because a rapid rural-urban migration causes a further decline of the rural service sectors. Empirical tests of our major hypotheses using Korean census data from 1966, 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1985 support our own model much more than the neoclassical or Lipton's models. A kun (county) with a large out-migration had a smaller proportion of younger working aged people in the population, and a smaller proportion of highly educated workers. But the productivity of farm workers, measured in terms of fall crops (rice) purchased by the government per farmer or per hectare of irrigated land, did not decline despite the loss of these youths and of human capital. The kun having had a large out-migration had a larger proportion of the population in the farm sector and a smaller proportion in the service sector. The kun having had a large out-migration also had a lower income measured in terms of the proportion of households receiving welfare payments or the amount of provincial taxes paid per household. The lower incomes of these kuns might explain why the kuns that experienced a large out-migration had difficulty in mechanizing farming. Our policy suggestions based on the tests of the currently prevailing hypotheses are as follows: 1) The main cause of farming difficulties is not a lack of human capital, but the in­crease in production costs due to rural wage increases combined with depressed farm output prices. Therefore, a more effective way of helping farm economies is by increasing farm output prices. However, we are not sure whether an increase in farm output prices is desirable in terms of efficiency. 2) It might be worthwhile to attempt to increase the size of farmland holdings per farm household so that the mechanization of farming can be achieved more easily. 3) A kun with large out-migration suffers a deterioration in income and welfare. Therefore, the government should provide a form of subsidization similar to the adjustment assistance provided for international trade. This assistance should not be related to the level of farm output. Otherwise, there is a possibility that we might encourage farm production which would not be profitable in the absence of subsidies. 4) Government intervention in agricultural research and its dissemination, and large-scale social overhead projects in rural areas, carried out by the Korean government, might be desirable from both efficiency and equity points of view. Government interventions in research are justified because of the problems associated with the appropriation of knowledge, and government actions on large-scale projects are justified because they required collective action.

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